Five killed in Yemen clashes, brigadier shot dead

December 25, 2012|Reuters

* Military, militants fight near pipeline

* Brigadier killed by gunmen in Sanaa

* Man arrested in capital for planting bomb

By Mohammed Ghobari

SANAA, Dec 25 (Reuters) - At least five militants werekilled and three soldiers wounded in Yemen on Tuesday infighting near a damaged oil pipeline east of the capital Sanaa,a defence ministry official and residents said.

In a separate incident, two gunmen riding a motorbike shotdead Brigadier Fadel Mohammed Ali, an adviser to the minister ofdefence, outside the ministry's offices in Sanaa, a policesource said. Further details were not immediately available.

The fighting in turbulent Maarib province broke out whengovernment troops backed by air strikes tried to secure thepipeline and repair damage inflicted last month by localmilitants, the official said.

The country's stability is a leading security goal for theUnited States and Gulf Arab allies because of its strategicposition next to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shippinglanes, and because it is home to one of the most active wings ofal Qaeda.

Under an agreement reached earlier this month between tribalchiefs and the government, tribes in Maarib were meant to stopmilitants from attacking the pipeline in return for a halt toair strikes in the area.

A local official said troops were deployed on Tuesday aftertribesmen failed to secure the pipeline or to hand over fightersinvolved in the killings of 17 army officers and soldiers in anambush earlier in December. They were killed while inspectingthe pipeline.

The affiliation of the militants in Maarib is unclear. Localsources said some had links to al Qaeda, while others wereinvolved in kidnapping foreigners to pressure the government torelease jailed kinsmen.

OFFICER WOUNDED IN CAPITAL

Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has mountedoperations in Saudi Arabia and attempted attacks against theUnited States, which has stepped up strikes by drones.

In a separate development, the ministry of defence said oneman was arrested in Sanaa on Tuesday for planting a bomb in thecar of an officer at the Central Security Forces. The attempt toblow up the car was foiled, the ministry said.

In another sign of growing lawlessness in the capital,Colonel Sameer al-Gharbani, an officer in the Republican Guard,was critically wounded in Sanaa in an attack by unidentifiedgunmen, a source at the Guard told Reuters.

Elsewhere in the city gunmen opened fire at the house ofTransport Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, wounding two of hisguards, a transport ministry official said.

The string of attacks happened less than a week afterPresident Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi overhauled the armed forces aspart of Gulf-brokered power-transfer plan that helped easeformer President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power in February.